April 1, Post 16: Final Post

This project began with a novel it took me several years to finish, not because I didn't like it, but because the subject matter struck too close to home for me to read it without feeling personally implicated. I've gone through my college career with Nausea, so it made sense to me that I would do my final project on the book. It's a personal project for me, so it's enlightening on personal as well as academic levels. I hope that anyone reading this has learned something as well.

These are some final thoughts I have on the project as a whole.

I started out with journal entries in a Microsoft Word document which were completely reflective and personal in nature. I eventually began to intermix these entries with more academic reflections, and, as the project moved forward, the personal reflections turning into reflections on process and eventually dwindled to nothing as the momentum of the academic side picked up and took over the project. I am glad that I undertook this form for the thesis because it demonstrates my creative process to me, which is something of which I've always been aware, but have never been able to watch across the stages of a project's development. I also think that this format worked best for the subject matter, since it allowed me to make the project personal and to get the most out of my investigation that I could.

I wasn't ever sure where the project was going, which was frightening, but also liberating in a sense. I've enjoyed being able to write on whatever caught my attention that day, and I am delighted if some kind of unity has been established between the myriad pieces I've put down. I found my unity, so what remains to be seen is whether or not my attempt at an "authentic" writing style communicated that unity or if, like for the characters, the authentic method only results in scattered "facts."

I'm not sure if I'm finished with this project or not. There is a lot more research I would like  to do, for instance, but I've created a product, and, like Revel, my train is leaving town (my thesis draft is due today). So, for now, this is it. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Library, Hamilton College, NY - 2 a.m., 1 April 2013.